Pay-as-you-go cold email, honestly compared
Paying per email costs less when your sending is small or uneven. A subscription costs less when you send close to its cap every month. Here’s where the line falls, from each vendor’s own prices.
What pay-as-you-go means
With a subscription you pay a fixed fee each month for a cap, such as 100,000 emails, whether you use it or not. With pay-as-you-go you pay for each unit you use and nothing in a quiet month.
Inboxed is pay-as-you-go: $1 per 1,000 emails that send, from a prepaid wallet. Top-ups start at $5 and aren’t refundable. There are no seats or plans, and warmup and verification of campaign leads are free. Emails that don’t send (failed verification, skipped leads, a stopped campaign) cost nothing.
How other tools price
From each vendor’s own pricing page, read November 8, 2026.
| Tool | Pricing model | Usage-based parts |
|---|---|---|
| Inboxed | Pay as you go, per email sent | Everything: no subscription |
| Instantly | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | Credits for leads and AI |
| Smartlead | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | None published |
| Lemlist | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | Lead-data credits, as a monthly add-on |
| Apollo | Subscription, per seat | Credits for data, mailboxes and warmup |
| Reply.io | Subscription, tiered by contacts or recipients | None published |
| Woodpecker | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | None published |
| Saleshandy | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | None published |
| Mailshake | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | None published |
| Snov.io | Subscription, tiered by contacts or recipients | Credits for finding and verifying; enrichment tokens at $0.02 each |
| Hunter | Subscription or quote; not priced by email volume | Credits for finding and verifying |
| QuickMail | Subscription, tiered by emails a month | None published |
| La Growth Machine | Subscription or quote; not priced by email volume | None published |
| Outreach | Subscription or quote; not priced by email volume | AI credits on top of per-user pricing |
| Salesloft | Subscription or quote; not priced by email volume | None published |
When a subscription is cheaper
Inboxed costs $1 per 1,000 emails, so a flat plan priced at $P beats it once you send more than P × 1,000 emails in a month, up to the plan’s cap. These plans have a cap above that break-even point, so in the range shown, the subscription costs less:
| Plan | Price a month | Cheaper than Inboxed from | Up to (plan cap) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instantly Hypergrowth | $107 | 107,001 emails | 125,000 |
| Instantly Light Speed | $358 | 358,001 emails | 500,000 |
| Smartlead Unlimited Prime | $379 | 379,001 emails | 500,000 |
| Lemlist Email 100k | $89 | 89,001 emails | 100,000 |
| Lemlist Email 200k | $159 | 159,001 emails | 200,000 |
| Lemlist Email 500k | $359 | 359,001 emails | 500,000 |
| Lemlist Email 1M | $659 | 659,001 emails | 1,000,000 |
| Saleshandy Pro | $99 | 99,001 emails | 100,000 |
| Saleshandy Scale | $189 | 189,001 emails | 200,000 |
| Mailshake Email Outreach, 1 user | $49 | 49,001 emails | Unlimited (per user; mailbox limits apply) |
| Mailshake Sales Engagement, 1 user | $99 | 99,001 emails | Unlimited (per user; mailbox limits apply) |
| QuickMail Growth | $99 | 99,001 emails | 100,000 |
| QuickMail Agency | $299 | 299,001 emails | 500,000 |
Monthly billing; yearly billing lowers these prices and so the break-even points too. Mailboxes and domains are extra in every case. A plan only saves money if you use most of it: if you stay on Instantly’s Light Speed ($358) in a month you send 200,000 emails, you pay $358, against $200 on Inboxed.
When pay-as-you-go is cheaper: an uneven year
Most teams don’t send the same amount every month. Take a year of 415,000 emails, spread unevenly:
- Jan: 8,000
- Feb: 60,000
- Mar: 15,000
- Apr: 120,000
- May: 5,000
- Jun: 30,000
- Jul: 0
- Aug: 45,000
- Sep: 10,000
- Oct: 90,000
- Nov: 20,000
- Dec: 12,000
| Tool | Keep one plan for the peak month | Change plan every month |
|---|---|---|
| Inboxed | $415 for the year | |
| Instantly | $1,284 (Hypergrowth) | $1,117 |
| Smartlead | $2,088 (Unlimited Smart) | $1,059 |
| Lemlist | $1,908 (Email 200k) | $889 |
| Woodpecker | No published plan covers the peak | Not published for every month |
| Saleshandy | $2,268 (Scale) | $1,121 |
| QuickMail | $3,588 (Agency) | $1,239 |
“Change plan every month” assumes you pick the cheapest plan for each month and pay nothing in July, which is the best case for a subscription; in practice, plan changes, proration and cancellation terms vary by vendor. Monthly list prices, read November 8, 2026.
Which should you choose?
- Pay-as-you-go suits you if you’re testing outbound, run campaigns in bursts, send for clients whose volume changes, or add teammates often.
- A subscription suits you if you send close to a plan’s cap every month, especially at several hundred thousand emails, or if you want extras that come bundled (lead data, LinkedIn steps, agency workspaces).
Try your own numbers in the pricing calculator, or see the full price table by volume.
Questions
What does pay-as-you-go cold email mean?
You pay for what you send, with no monthly fee. With Inboxed, you top up a wallet (from $5) and each email that sends costs $0.001. A month with no sending costs nothing.
Is pay-as-you-go always cheaper?
No. A flat plan costs less when you send close to its cap every month. For example, Instantly’s Hypergrowth plan ($107 for up to 125,000 emails) costs less than Inboxed above 107,000 emails a month. The table on this page lists every case we found.
Which cold email tools offer pay-as-you-go?
Of the 14 other tools we compare, none publishes per-email pricing for sending, as of November 8, 2026. Some sell usage-based credits for data or AI on top of a plan, and Apollo, Hunter and Snov.io have small free plans.
Do unused emails roll over on a subscription?
Usually not. Woodpecker’s help centre, for example, says unsent emails don’t carry over to the next month. With Inboxed, money in your wallet stays there until it’s spent on emails that send.
Instantly, Smartlead, Lemlist, Apollo, Reply.io, Woodpecker, Saleshandy, Mailshake, Snov.io, Hunter, QuickMail, La Growth Machine, Outreach and Salesloft are trademarks of their owners, named only to compare products. Inboxed isn’t affiliated with them.
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